What next for worried Whitney?
Eastenders actress Shona Mcgarty tells us why she hopes her character will get away with murder…
To be honest I was really excited when I first found out about this storyline,” grins Walford star Shona Mcgarty, when we grill her on her initial reaction to Whitney’s prison plot. “Especially when I learned that we’d see Whitney behind bars, and that there would be this real struggle for her inside, which then leads up to her bravery and her hunger strike. It was a real challenge to play, but I enjoyed every second of it, I really did. I’d do it again in a heartbeat!”
And Shona may get her wish if her alter ego ends up going down for Leo King’s murder! With her trial looming, Whitney faces the very real possibility that she’ll be spending a long time at Her Majesty’s pleasure. But while she’s been having a lot of fun playing out this plot, Shona tells us that she has her fingers crossed that Whit won’t find herself serving a life sentence.
“I don’t want to see Whitney go back to prison, because I don’t think she deserves to!” she states. “I think Whitney needs to be on the Square, where she belongs, where she grew up – she needs to be around her family. And she needs to confide in Tiff more, because I think Tiffany could do with her sister at the moment as well.
“But Whitney’s convinced she’s going back to prison and that she deserves some sort of punishment, whichever way that presents itself,” adds Shona. “I think Whitney would cope behind bars eventually, because she’s a survivor, and she is very strong.”
This week, Whitney takes matters into her own hands as she prepares to do a runner from the Square (see p10). Viewers will have to wait to find out whether Whit goes through with her crazy plan, but Shona tells us that she can’t blame her tormented character for wanting to get away from it all.
“I don’t think Whitney is doing the right thing,” she concedes. “But I can understand why Whitney would feel the only option she has left is to run away. She hasn’t had five minutes to even sit down and really think about her next move, and Leo’s mum Michaela turning up on the Square wanting revenge shocks Whitney. Michaela knows exactly what Leo was like, yet she’s pretending she doesn’t.”
So, there are some tense times in store for Whitney. Shona doesn’t want to give too much away about the outcome, although she does promise that there will be plenty of action to come before the judge delivers a verdict.
“All I can say is that there’s a lot of drama ahead, and obviously everybody involved is on edge,” she teases. “Whitney’s lawyer Gray is working really hard for her, and I think every day Whitney’s just thinking about her situation – wherever she may be. She’s just playing everything out in her mind. It must be so nerve-wracking for her. I can’t even imagine what she’s going through at the moment…”
I can’t imagine what Whit is going through right now…
The evidence is stacked against poor Whitney, but the viewers are certainly rooting for her to be found ‘not guilty’, so she can carry on living her life on the Square. And while Shona agrees that Whitney deserves some happier times, she also admits that it’s far more fun to play out the drama!
“As a viewer, I would love to see Whitney happy, even if it’s just for a short while,” she explains. “But as an actress, I like reading the scripts and thinking, ‘Oh wow, now this happens’. It’s nice to be trusted with these storylines, and also have a chance to play them. So as an actress, I don’t mind Whitney not being happy!”
Whitney’s current predicament may all be down to wicked Leo and the misery he inflicted on her life, but Shona tells us that she had a ball working with actor Tom Wells, who played him. Even if his performance was a bit too scarily real sometimes…
“Tom was so fantastic at playing
Leo,” reveals the actress. “We’d film scenes, and when the director called ‘cut’ I’d be in complete shock. I’d be like, ‘You really frightened me there – that was amazing!’
“He was just so, so good at playing that darkness, and you could see
him thinking all the time,” adds Shona. “It was a pleasure to work with him – he’s so different from Leo!”
The final scene between Whitney and Leo – in which she accidentally stabbed him to death – was harrowing to watch. However, Shona says that she actually had really good fun filming it.
“I mean, it was tough, but at the same time, myself and Tom love doing stunts and fights,” she grins. “It was almost like a dance routine, it had to be perfectly choreographed. So we both really enjoyed that.”
But Tom isn’t the only co-star Shona is missing right now. With filming on Eastenders currently paused due to the coronavirus pandemic, Shona and her colleagues are taking an unexpected break from work. Although the actress tells us she can’t wait to get back on to set at some point in the future.
“I miss the atmosphere at work, being around all your friends and just acting – I really miss all of that,” admits Shona. “The cast has a message group, though, and we all talk to each other pretty much every day, so it’s been really nice to do that and stay in touch.
“Everyone’s making the most out of what’s a really awful situation,” she continues. “And when it all goes back to normal, hopefully I can get my teeth stuck into some great scripts again!”